Modi objects to BCCI referring to him as 'then chairman'

May 12, 2010 00:10 IST

Suspended IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi on Tuesday strongly objected to the Board of Control for Cricket in India referring him as "then chairman" while announcing the appointment of an advisor to interim chairman Chirayu Amin.

"I have just seen your media release issued today. I strongly object to you using the phrase 'the then Chairman' as referring to me. I am still the Chairman and Commissioner of the IPL and at the moment just suspended," a belligerent Modi said in an e-mail to the BCCI.

"I would request you to issue an immediate clarification to the media in this regard," said Modi, according to Times Now.

Earlier in the day, BCCI secretary N Srinivasan, in a media statement, said, "Bharat Patel, former Chairman of Proctor and Gamble is being appointed as the Honorary Advisor to the Interim Chairman of IPL, Chirayu Amin.

"Bharat Patel was associated in setting up of Indian Premier League in 2008 in an advisory capacity to the then Chairman," the statement added.

The new appointment will have to be ratified in next month's IPL Governing Council meeting. It is learnt that Amin proposed Patel's name for the job.

Since Modi's suspension, Amin is looking into the series of allegations levelled against the suspended IPL Commissioner while cricketing issues pertaining to the Twenty20 league have been left to former India captains Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri.

Modi was suspended on April 26, soon after the conclusion of the IPL III final in Navi Mumbai by BCCI, which sent him a show cause notice asking him to reply to a slew of charges relating to the conduct of the high-profile Twenty20 league.

Modi is accused of indulging in murky financial deals without the knowledge of the IPL Governing Council, bid-rigging and taking kickbacks from the TV rights and internet deals.

Modi's problems were compounded when he was slapped with a second show cause notice by the Board for allegedly trying to provoke English counties to revolt against their parent body, the ECB, and start a parallel Twenty20 league.

Once Modi responds to the charges, the board's three-man disciplinary committee, comprising BCCI president Shashank Manohar and two vice-presidents -- Arun Jaitley and Chirayu Amin -- will take over the proceedings.